Do Your Patients Really Understand?

Written by Leslie D McDowell, DNP, ANP-BC, RN | Dec 8, 2021 8:00:00 PM

A recent study of 87 primary care encounters found that providers used at least 1 type of medical jargon without explaining it to patients in nearly 80% of appointments, with an average of more than 4 uses of jargon per visit. Fewer than half of the terms were explained, and overall, providers used a jargon term about once every 4 minutes!

Fully understanding your explanation and instructions is vital to good patient outcomes, providers often overestimate what their patients grasp.

What can you do? Try simple Teach-Back.

Here's one pediatrician's experience:

Practice Experiences
"I decided to do teach-back on five patients. With one mother and her child, I concluded the visit by saying 'so tell me what you are going to do when you get home.'...She could not tell me what instructions I had just given her. I explained the instructions again and then she was able to teach them back to me… I had no idea she did not understand… I was so wrapped up in delivering the message that I did not realize it wasn't being received".

The teach-back and show-me methods are valuable tools for everyone to use with each patient and for all clinic staff to use. These methods can help you:

Improve patient understanding and adherence.
Decrease call backs and cancelled appointments.
Improve patient satisfaction and outcomes.

Interested in learning even more? Check out Health Literacy Universal Precautions from AHRQ!

View full post